Software: The integration of technology has significantly helped many industries. Software has been deployed in many industries. This has helped automate repetitive procedures, therefore, improving the workflow rate. The software also helps make work easier, among other benefits.
The healthcare industry is a vital one for any economy and nation. The healthcare industry offers the backbone for supporting humanity and its wellbeing. This, therefore, means that it should be at the forefront in adopting technologies that will help make it better.
Software in the healthcare industry can offer numerous advantages, both to the healthcare institution and to the patients. The adoption of software in the healthcare industry has already started.
The most common software used in the healthcare industry is Electronic Health Records (EHRs) management system. A report from a 2017 study indicated that 94% of hospitals used EHRs for various purposes.
Such high adoption rates indicate that the use of software has significantly impacted and helped their businesses. In this article, we look at various ways in which software can help the healthcare industry.
a. Reduced Medical Errors
The use of software can help to reduce the rate of medical errors. Medical errors arise when doctors make mistakes when treating patients. These errors can include improper medication, incomplete condition diagnosis, etc.
Through the use of software, health institutions can offer complete healthcare records and patient history to doctors and other medical personnel. By studying previous medical records, medical personnel reduce the risk of performing medical errors.
Electronic Health Records systems play a vital part when reducing medical errors. Currently, the critical concern in healthcare is the distribution of patient records between various hospitals. A patient goes to a new hospital, and the hospital now has to perform numerous tests to get patient information that is available at the patient’s previous hospital.
For EHRs, health institutions can also use blockchain technology to transfer records between them. This will help offer more patient background information to hospitals.
To improve medical care, hospitals can also use membership management software to keep track of patient status after offering medication. If a medical error occurs, it will be detected early, and a remedy will be offered. Organizations use membership management software to keep track of their client records and contact information.
b. Virtual Healthcare
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic brought out the concerns posed by contagious diseases. As a measure to counter the transmission of easily transmittable diseases, the healthcare industry can implement software to offer home-based care.
This strategy was implemented by many major healthcare institutions when dealing with the covid-19 disease. To improve the efficiency of home-based care, the software can also integrate with smart medical devices and an expert system. These are also just some of the hospice software benefits that are very helpful to hospice agencies.
Smart medical devices will keep track of a patient’s vital signs and relay the results to the concerned healthcare institution. The expert systems will continuously analyze results transmitted by the smart medical device.
The expert system can note when the patient’s vitals are not okay and alert the concerned medical personnel to offer additional help. Virtual healthcare services can also reduce congestion in public health institutions.
c. Improved Medical Diagnosis
A statistics report denoted that in the USA, about 12 million people are wrongly diagnosed annually. This statistic shows the dire situation currently faced in the healthcare industry. This situation can, however, be alleviated by using software to improve diagnosis accuracy.
Previous medical diagnosis data can be used to develop machine learning models. The models can be integrated with diagnosis software to improve the accuracy of medical diagnosis reports. Based on the reported statistics, such a measure would alleviate the pain and suffering of 12 million people caused by wrong medical diagnoses.
The machine learning models can also be directly integrated into medical devices such as CT Scanners, EEG machines, etc. This will help offer an immediate medical diagnosis for the conditions or issues that the machines help to detect.
d. Virtual Reality Medical Care and Planning
The use of virtual reality in medical care has been gaining significant traction in recent years. Dr. Gayatri Devi discussed the promising uses of virtual reality to alleviate pain during medical procedures.
In her discussion, she pointed out that pain is felt in the brain, not in the body part undergoing any procedure.
The software can offer virtual reality experiences according to a patient’s hobbies and interests. If for instance, a patient loves Formula 1, the virtual reality environment can incorporate the sport. This will offer a distraction as the patient undergoes any medical procedure that will inflict pain.
The use of virtual reality to manage pain can also be used by patients on their own, instead of using painkillers. This will significantly help alleviate the risks posed by the consistent use of pain medications.
The use of virtual reality software in the healthcare industry can also extend to surgical procedures. Surgical anxiety is an issue that many patients face, especially before undergoing an operation. Virtual reality can offer a distraction to patients, therefore, easing their surgical anxiety.
e. Seamless Management of Medical Processes
The core purpose of using software is to automate processes. By implementing software in every department in a medical institution, it will be easy to manage all processes. A case in practice of this is the delivery of medical laboratory tests.
When using manual operations, a patient is sent to the laboratory to have a test. After the test is done, the patient waits at the laboratory to get the results and heads back to the consulting doctor with them.
By implementing software to link the consulting doctor and the laboratory, the patient will not have to wait for the test results. The results will be sent directly to the consulting doctor.
The seamless management of hospital processes can offer the 1-second difference that a patient’s life counts on.
Conclusion
Software automation provides profound benefits across different industries, including the health sector. It offers advantageous uses in hospital procedures and customer services.
When choosing software to implement in a hospital, it is vital to consider the needs of the medical institution. This will help to get software that perfectly addresses the issues of the medical institution.